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August 18, 2007
Washers For Half a $Million Apiece
This story suggests one of the many reasons healthcare will become extravagantly expensive once it becomes "free" under socialized medicine:
A small South Carolina parts supplier collected about $20.5 million over six years from the Pentagon for fraudulent shipping costs, including $998,798 for sending two 19-cent washers to an Army base in Texas, U.S. officials said.
The company also billed and was paid $455,009 to ship three machine screws costing $1.31 each to Marines in Habbaniyah, Iraq, and $293,451 to ship an 89-cent split washer to Patrick Air Force Base in Cape Canaveral, Florida, Pentagon records show.
The military is one of the few areas where turning the job over to the government is necessary. In terms of efficiency it compares very well to other government entities, like for example your local DMV. But wherever you have government bureaucracy, you will have situations where costs are ignored because hey, it's not our money, it's everybody's money. This is called the Tragedy of the Commons.
When HillaryCare becomes a reality, we will no doubt see scraped knees treated with $500,000 Band-Aids, while cancer patients die on the waiting list. But at least someone else will pay for it all.
On a tip from Nanc.
Posted by Van Helsing at August 18, 2007 3:44 PM
Comments
I recall a hospital not too far from me that once stocked an entire new ward with state-of-the-art beds and equipment, then shut it down the next day because they ran over their budget. Then they scrapped the lot a month later. Total cost somewhere in the range of about £5 million.
Posted by: Archonix at August 19, 2007 12:45 AM
cancel my order, please.
that s&h will break you every time!
Posted by: nanc at August 19, 2007 6:38 AM
Capitalism, minus Morals & Ethics, equals Enron, Tyco and Stuff Like The Above.
Posted by: Toa at August 19, 2007 7:45 AM
>>Capitalism, minus Morals & Ethics, equals Enron, Tyco and Stuff Like The Above.
"Capitalism, minus COMMON SENSE" is more like it, Tao. I wonder what today's army would make of Patton in the thirties who bought stuff from Sears and Western Auto out of his own pocket when he couldn't get them from supply? They would probobly bust him to civilian!
Posted by: KHarn at August 19, 2007 9:30 AM
